This invention relates to a printed wiring board assembly for use with a connector and, more particularly, to such an assembly which provides strain relief for a cable secured to the printed wiring board and provides protective isolation to connector terminal solder tails extending through the printed wiring board.
The connector with which the present invention finds utility has a plurality of elongated conductive terminals each having first and second ends along the longitudinal axis of each terminals. A substantially planar insulative base holds the plurality of terminals in a parallel spaced array with the axes of the terminals orthogonal to the base and with the first ends of all of the terminals extending outwardly from a first side of the base. The first ends of the terminals are sometimes called solder tails and extend through openings in a printed wiring board. These openings are plated through-hole and a wave soldering operation is performed to secure the tails to the board and electrically connect the tails to respective ones of the plated through-holes. The plated through-holes are connected to conductive traces on the board to which wires of a cable are connected. These wires are susceptible to damage resulting from their movement. It would therefore be desirable to provide strain relief for the connection of the wires to the board.
Further, the tails extend through the board and are exposed on the side of the board away from the connector. These tails can be short circuited if they inadvertently contact a conductive object. It would therefore be desirable to isolate the exposed tails to prevent them from being inadvertently short circuited.